December 20, 2020

you cannot catch / my rhythm

December 2020, and so many people are just about hanging on. It is not clear what they are hanging on to, and how long that grip will last.

I do not want to get used to this. We should not have to get used to this.

Where does the migraine begin and the dread end? Or is it the other way around?

There’s a specific kind of exhaustion that comes from spending your waking hours explaining power to the powerful.

Attribution:

I want to feel: 

you cannot tear my song 
from my throat 

you cannot erase the memory 
of my story 

you cannot catch 
my rhythm 

(for you have to born 
with that) 

you cannot comprehend 
the magic 

of anacondas changing into rivers 
like the Amazon 
boas dancing in my garden 
arcing into rainbows 
(and I haven’t had a drop 
to drink – yet) 

You cannot reverse 
Bob Marley wailing 

making me feel 
so mellow 

in that Caribbean yellow 
at three o’clock 

any day now.

— from Meditation on Yellow by Olive Senior in Gardening in the Tropics